In this tutorial you will go through the process of modeling and rendering a Photorealistic USB cable in Autodesk Maya. You will also learn to use Mental Ray, along with the new architectural materials, rendering layers, and Photoshop, to create a fast, accurate, and photorealistic depth of field.

Step 1

This is where we left off at the end of Day 1.

Step 2

Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade”.

Step 3

Go to “Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager”, and locate “Mayatomr.mll". Check off both "Loaded", and "Auto Load" (do this step only if mental ray is not already loaded).

Step 4

With the “Hypershade” window open, change the type of nodes from Maya to Mental Ray, and create a new “mia_material_x”

Step 5

Go to the attribute editor for the new material, name the material, and adjust the attributes as shown.

Step 6

Scroll down to the "Bump" selection, click on the little check board square at the right of "Standard Bump" (this will open a new window). Now scroll to the "3D Textures", and select “Rock”.

Step 7

With the “Bump” attribute editor open, change the “Bump Depth” to '0.062', and click on the door at the right of “Bump Value”.

Step 8

Change “Color 1” to a white grey.

Step 9

In the “Hypershade” editor, create 3 “mia_material_x” materials.

Step 10

Open the attribute editor of one of those materials, name it "mia_cable", and adjust the attributes as shown.

Step 11

Scroll down to the bump section, click on the check board square next to "Overall bump" (this will open a new window), scroll down to 3D textures and select "Brownian".

Step 12

With the "Bump" attribute editor opened, change “Bump Depth” to "0.372", and click on the little door next to “Bump Value”.

Step 13

Name the texture "brownian_cable" and modify the settings as shown.

Step 14

Open the attribute editor for another one of the “mia_material_x” materials, name the material "mia_MetalConnector", and adjust the attributes as shown.

Step 15

Don´t forget to check the “Metal Material” option, at the bottom of the "Reflection" section.

Step 16

Scroll down, open the “Anisotropy” section, and change the “Anisotropy” value to "0.100".

Step 17

Open the last “mia_material_x” material, name it "mia_whitePlastic", and adjust the attributes as shown.

Step 18

Now assign every material to corresponding polygons in the scene. This is how it should look.